Recollections of the Greatest Ever Penalty Shoot-out

When Wolves dumped Sheffield Wednesday out of the FA Cup thirty years ago

Thirty years. Where does time go? The memories of an incredible evening at Molineux are as vivid as they were the day after what was an extraordinary night in the history of Wolverhampton Wanderers. These were exciting times, change was afoot. For most of the late 1980s, the club’s historic home was a two-sided apology of a football stadium. Yet still something stirred in that old place under the floodlights. There were odd moments to savour in cup competitions, too, during Wolves’ time in the lower divisions. The Sherpa Van Trophy Southern Area final second leg against Notts County back in 1988, with a packed South Bank terrace and more distant filled John Ireland Stand, made for a special night as Graham Turner’s Fourth Division side secured a trip to Wembley.

By 8 February 1995 the landscape had changed dramatically. The Steve Bull-inspired revival had taken place on the pitch, as Wolves were promoted twice to reach the second tier, before Sir Jack Hayward arrived to plough a significant chunk of his personal wealth into the stadium redevelopment. The Molineux of the 1994/95 season was an impressive stage. Supporters’ ambitions had been reset by the arrival of former England manager Graham Taylor in March 1994 and Wolves went on a spending spree that subsequent summer in pursuit of the Premier League.

Back in September that season, there had been a hint of the atmosphere the ‘new’ Molineux could generate that when a Nottingham Forest side containing Bryan Roy and Stan Collymore edged a five-goal thriller in a fantastic League Cup tie. This was what Wolves were aspiring to: regular contests against the country’s top teams.

The FA Cup had captured the imagination again, after the previous season’s run to the quarter-finals under Turner. The 1994/95 FA Cup campaign began in slapstick fashion, with Taylor’s side going 2-0 down on a pudding of a pitch to fourth tier Mansfield Town before a three-goal comeback secured a trip to Premier League Sheffield Wednesday in the fourth round. That Monday night tie at Hillsborough saw goalkeeper Paul Jones come to the rescue with a brilliant late penalty save against Chris Bart-Williams to secure a replay.

The replay had many similarities with the Forest clash earlier in the season: end to end with enough chances for both sides to win ahead of the shoot-out. Mark Bright’s miss in the final seconds of extra-time at the North Bank end was something to behold. It was one of those moments when time stopped. That’s it. He’s scored. Wednesday are through. It was more straight-forward than a penalty, but somehow Bright guided the ball over the bar. The collective cheers of relief, joy even, were as loud as if Wolves had scored. How many second chances were Taylor’s men going to have? A couple more as it turned out.

Watching from the South Bank for the denouement, there was a sense of anticipation about the penalty shoot-out. This was the first proper one Wolves had been involved in; it was novel and exciting. But the bubble burst in no time. Andy Thompson and Robbie Dennison were stalwarts from the Fourth Division days; crowd favourites who had survived the regeneration of the team and found a way into Taylor’s plans. To see them both fail was desperately disappointing. When Wednesday keeper Kevin Pressman put his side 3-0 up with the finest penalty you will ever see, the sense of anti-climax overcame Molineux. Two great Cup ties, with extra-time thrown in, and Wolves were going out with a whimper.

The Wednesday fans were celebrating along the bottom tier of the John Ireland Stand. There just seemed no way back. But then the last vestige of lingering hope was replaced with incredulity as each subsequent penalty went Wolves’ way. All seven of them. From 3-0 down to 3-3. The jeers accompanying Chris Waddle when he strode up to take Wednesday’s sudden-death penalty were cruel. He was the evening’s pantomime villain after some disparaging remarks he had made about Wolves in the build-up. And, of course, there was that semi-final night in Turin at the 1990 World Cup which added to the narrative.

Only rarely does a player look like they are going to miss a penalty. But the reluctance of Waddle as he wandered up to the spot seemed to buoy the Wolves fans. It was a terrible penalty and Jones, as he had been in South Yorkshire, was the hero once more. All it required was for Don Goodman to lift the roof off the place with the final act, walloping home the decisive spotkick.

It had everything, that night under the lights. From the rousing rendition of The Liquidator before kick-off to the exuberant celebrations of the players after the shoot-out. And so much in between. The 1994/95 season was bittersweet. For fans too young to recall the Wolves of the 1970s, it contained some of the most exciting matches ever seen, yet the season ended in such heartache, with defeat to Bolton Wanderers in the play-off semi-finals.

It was the cup competitions that ultimately counted against Taylor’s squad, adding to the fixture pile-up and injury woes. The players on the pitch were an unlikely fusion, too. Thompson and Dennison from the ramshackle times of the 80s, to the cosmopolitan continental John De Wolf. There was nothing settled about Taylor’s side that season and there was nothing routine about the games they played. Of course it ended in disappointment, but that was for another day down the line. The Sheffield Wednesday cup tie captured the hope, the drama and the joy of following Wolves at that particular moment in time. It was these nights that made it all worthwhile.